In many office environments, there is a need to control and monitor costs associated with the use of printing and copying devices. Thus, many enterprises establish an “access list” that controls access to a particular resource and allows printing and copying costs to be associated with a particular employee or with a particular project with which the employee is associated. This allows the enterprise to accurately bill the client or customer for the costs associated with producing printed materials. However, the use of an access list requires an administrator to periodically modify and update the list as employees move within the enterprise as well as when new projects are initiated and other projects are completed. In many instances, the administrator can spend a significant amount of time updating and modifying the access list in response to these changes.
In larger enterprises, the problem may be even more acute. For example, when an employee from one facility travels to another facility, he or she may require access to printing and copying devices at the new facility for only a short period of time, such as one or two days. In these instances, the traveling employee may be added to the access list at the beginning of the week and removed from that access list later that same week. In another example, such as in a hotel setting, a guest may require the use of printing and imaging devices at the hotel's “business center” for perhaps only a few hours. In these instances, both the enterprise and the hotel can benefit from associating printing and copying costs with a particular individual without requiring an administrator to modify the access list when the user begins and ends his or her visit.